Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!wuarchive!udel!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Subject: Re: Representation Clauses
Message-ID: <15211@smoke.brl.mil>
Date: 15 Feb 91 18:59:39 GMT
References: <91042.160311KKEYTE@ESOC.BITNET> <15187@smoke.brl.mil> <91045.112247KKEYTE@ESOC.BITNET>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 17

In article <91045.112247KKEYTE@ESOC.BITNET> KKEYTE@ESOC.BITNET (Karl Keyte) writes:
>Actually, being able to specify a structure's element alignment
>DOES guarantee portability.

No, I stand by what I said.  While, using the technique you suggest,
structure member alignment would be a NECESSARY condition for
portability, it would not be SUFFICIENT.

>If you know you receive an IEEE standard FP number in a particular
>element then you can convert as appropriate.

This has not been my experience, and it certainly does not apply to
multi-byte integral types.

>It's a shortfall of the standard as far as I'm concerned.

You're entitled to your opinion about that.  I disagree.